Growing Up Late

Life Transitions Have Purpose and Power with Debi Ronca What if feeling stuck isn’t a problem to fix, but an invitation? Transition life coach and international bestselling author Debi Ronca joins Jeannie to talk about what it really means to be in transition, and how it differs from feeling lost. Debi shares the empty nest season that led her to coaching, why transitions magnify the inner challen...

What if the strength everyone admires in you is really a survival pattern? Barb Varcl Smith is a trauma recovery educator, therapist, and speaker who grew up in Prague under communist Czechoslovakia and trained as an engineer before becoming a therapist. She joins Jeannie to explain fake resilience, the Ascendance Method, and why healing childhood trauma is possible at any age. KEY TAKEAWAYS What...

What if you checked in with yourself before something broke? In this solo episode of Growing Up Late, Jeannie McIntire takes her own advice. With freshly injected arthritic thumbs and a calendar that looked impossible, she heads to the Florida beach for her annual fall reset. She isn’t in crisis. She feels great and loves her work. That’s exactly why this conversation matters. Jeannie explores why...

Empty nest identity and the dream sheet, with Kelly Salmons “You are the value.” Kelly Salmons says it plainly: when the kids leave and the daily needing slows, it can feel like your worth left too. It didn’t. Kelly, founder of The Nest Evolution, explains how she found that out the hard way, starting with ten minutes, a blank page, and one dream: a trip to Antarctica. Kelly had a plan. She moved...

Being picked feels like proof you’re worth something. It isn’t. A story about flattery, people-pleasing, and what happens when you say no to an offer you were supposed to be grateful for. For most of my life, if someone told me I was the right person for something and said it warmly, I said yes. In this episode of Growing Up Late, I take apart the idea that being chosen is the same as being valued...

Burnout recovery, people-pleasing, and the mother wound: Morrighan Lynne, trauma-informed coach and author of The Spirited Human, shares how burnout came in to save her life and what she learned about self-abandonment along the way. In this episode of Growing Up Late, host Jeannie McIntire talks with Morrighan Lynne about the moment everything collapsed at the end of 2022, the mother wound underne...

I fell down an entire flight of stairs rushing to impress my mentor. Cut up, adrenaline through the roof, and I still walked in late and unable to focus. That's the day I learned speed doesn't equal care, competence, or forward motion. I wasn't out of time. I was out of order. This episode is about the fallacy that rushing gets things done faster, and what actually works instead: the 168-hour audi...

What happens when the story you tell about yourself changes, and the world starts responding differently? In this episode of Growing Up Late , transformational life coach and author Jennifer Benson (host of The Impossible Shift ) shares how she moved from self-silencing and survival mode to a more open, grounded way of seeing herself, relationships, and love. Jennifer talks candidly about the peri...

Almost exactly a year ago, a DNA test I almost didn't take turned up a brother I never knew I had. On the eve of my birthday, I'm telling the story and the harder truth I found on the other side of it. This is a birthday episode, but it's not really about turning a year older. It's about what happened when a chance DNA test (thank you, ex-boyfriend convinced I was a Viking princess) turned into an...

Denise Willis was married six times before she learned how to set a boundary. In this episode of Growing Up Late , the life coach, author, and breast cancer survivor joins host Jeannie McIntire to unpack how growing up with conditional love shaped decades of people-pleasing, how she healed after surviving narcissistic and physically abusive relationships, and why she believes it's never too late t...

My marriage was over. My finances were devastated. My ex was building a new life with someone else. Then he left me a voicemail: "Can you take me off the mortgage?" The nerve of it was one thing. What surprised me more was my own reaction. I immediately started thinking about how I could fix it. That was what I did. At work, I was actually nicknamed "The Ambulance" because I was sent into failing...

There’s a difference between being generous and abandoning yourself. But when you’ve spent years being the helpful one, the dependable one, the woman everyone needs, that line can get surprisingly hard to see. In this episode of Growing Up Late, I talk with holistic boundaries coach Alyssa Utecht about the energy leaks we create when our yes doesn’t really mean yes — and why sensitive women can be...

A lot can change in a year. A lot can change in a life. Jeannie McIntire lost her father at five years old. A year later, she watched a man walk on the moon. Decades later, she would discover just how many different lives can fit inside one lifetime. In this episode of Growing Up Late , Jeannie explores what happens when we stop treating our current identity as the final version of who we are. A c...

What happens when the life you planned disappears, and grief leaves you responsible for decisions you never expected to make alone? Catherine “Cathy” Bass had more than 25 years of tax and financial experience when her husband died unexpectedly in a drowning accident. Professionally, she knew how to handle paperwork, deadlines, and financial obligations. Personally, nothing could have prepared her...

Episode Summary What if divorce wasn’t just something to survive, but an opportunity to grow? Divorce is often described as one of life’s most painful experiences. But what if it could also become one of its greatest teachers? In this episode of Growing Up Late , I sit down with divorce and co-parenting coach Marisa Belger for a thoughtful conversation about navigating one of life’s hardest transi...

What if the voice in your head isn't actually you? Most of us assume the voice narrating our lives is who we are. We replay old conversations, believe inherited stories, mistake certainty for truth, and give every thought equal authority. But what if the narrator in your mind isn't always telling the truth? In this episode of Growing Up Late , Jeannie shares the deeply personal experiences that ta...

Divorce changes a family—but it doesn't have to define a child's future. In this episode of Growing Up Late , Jeannie McIntire sits down with internationally recognized divorce and co-parenting coach Rosalind Sedacca to explore what children truly need when their parents separate, and how adults can navigate divorce with greater wisdom, compassion, and emotional maturity. Drawing on her experience...

The difference between sacred silence and self-abandonment. How many times have you rehearsed something in your head—not because you did not know what you wanted to say, but because you were trying to say it in a way that would not make anyone uncomfortable? In this solo episode of Growing Up Late , Jeannie McIntire explores what it means to say what needs to be said—not as a way to control the ou...

What happens when the life you built no longer fits, but you do not yet know who you are becoming? In this episode of Growing Up Late , Jeannie McIntire talks with Ruchika Singhal, reinvention coach, author, and founder of Elevare Advisory, about navigating the unnerving but often transformative space between an old identity and a new one. After more than 25 years in senior leadership roles with g...

What if life is not waiting for you somewhere in the future? Not after you lose the weight, get the job, heal from the hard thing, feel ready, become confident, or finally know enough. What if life is already happening, and the only way forward is to participate in it? In this solo episode of Growing Up Late , Jeannie McIntire reflects on a note she wrote in 2013: “Life: Sign Up Now.” More than a...

What’s sitting in your garage? For me, it was a chainsaw. In this episode of Growing Up Late , I share the unlikely story of a chainsaw that sat unused in my garage for years, not because I didn’t own it, but because somewhere along the way, I had decided chainsaws were for other people . You know… Other people use power tools. Other people reinvent their lives. Other people take big risks, speak...

Episode 10: My Mother Invented the Plastic Kite My mother used to say, "I'm not an inventor." Which was interesting, because I'm pretty sure she invented the plastic kite. Or at least she had the idea. In this episode, I revisit three stories from my childhood: a kite, a fireplace, and a trip to the beach, and what they revealed about permission, self-concept, and the gap between having an idea an...

This Is My Teacher. What Is My Lesson? What if the most important lessons in our lives come from the people and experiences we would never have chosen? In this episode of Growing Up Late , I explore a question that has fundamentally changed the way I move through the world: This is my teacher. What is my lesson? Using the ancient story of the Taoist farmer as a guide, I reflect on the mentors, cri...

Your Life is Already Telling the Truth Episode 8 of Growing Up Late explores awareness, avoidance, and the uncomfortable process of waking up to our own lives. Jeannie reflects on a powerful “168 Hours” exercise that revealed the gap between what she said mattered and how she was actually spending her time. From unopened bills to podcast procrastination, she explores the universal human tendency t...

The Human Algorithm Emotion makes memory stick. In this deeply reflective episode, Jeannie explores the “human algorithm”, the way our minds feed us more of whatever we focus on most. After years of believing she would always overcome adversity, a devastating personal and financial collapse shifted her thinking into fear, catastrophe, and certainty that everything would fall apart. Using vivid met...